Masterchef star to open restaurant in York

A nationally-acclaimed Yorkshire chef is set to open a new café-restaurant in the centre of York.

Matt Healy, who was runner-up in BBC’s Masterchef: The Professionals in 2016, is to open Grön Kafé in the former Filmore & Union premises in Low Petergate.

It will be his fourth site and will have a heavy vegetarian and vegan focus, inspired by ‘clean living’ ideals. There is space for just over 20 covers upstairs and two downstairs, and it will open throughout the day.

Mr Healy, chef patron of The Matt Healy x Restaurant Group, told YorkMix:

• There’s no denying that many people are actively cutting down on their meat consumption, and we want to prove that vegetarian and vegan dishes serve up just as much flavour.

  We’re incredibly excited to bring the Grön concept to York.
  

Open next month

The group already runs three highly-regarded premises in Leeds: Matt Healy x The Foundry in South Bank, The Beehive gastropub in Thorner and the original Grön Kafé in Oakwood.

If licensing and planning applications go smoothly, the business hopes to open in York in February.

Lucinda Hurst, marketing manager for the group, said the Leeds branch of Grön Kafé had been very well received and said Mr Healy wanted to keep his businesses in the north. She said:

• York is great for tourists and locals and we think it’s missing that clean-eating, vegan experience, where people want it. We are hoping to meet that demand.
  

Moss wall

She said it would have a café-vibe by day, with evening events planned down the line.

The Leeds branch has a live moss wall and the group hopes to secure approval for a similar feature in York.

There will be some fish dishes but the menu will be largely vegetarian and vegan, with some Scandinavian recipes. The name is similarly-derived, with Grön meaning ‘green’ in Swedish.

A licensing application has been submitted to City of York Council, and the building already has planning permission for café/restaurant use.

Matt Healy, born in Horsforth, Leeds, shot to fame when he was runner-up in the professional version of the popular BBC cooking programme Masterchef – with two-Michelin-starred judge Marcus Wareing famously describing one of Matt’s sauces as ‘one of the best he had ever tasted’.